Ruble-Backed Stablecoin A7A5 worth $9.4B Processed on Grinex

Sanctioned cryptocurrency exchange Garantex’s alleged successor, Grinex, has processed over $9.3 billion of the Ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5. Speculations are rife about the nature of the token’s usage since the bulk of the transactions originated from only 124 wallets, as per a report by the Financial Times on 25 June 2025.

Currently, users can only find the A7A5 stablecoin listed on Uniswap. It boasts a market cap of $151 million, with about 12 million tokens in circulation. According to Grinex’s telegram channel, traders can use the Ruble-backed stablecoin to trade against the Russian Ruble and also against the USDT and the US dollar.

Elliptic analysts, cited by the Financial Times, suggest that rigid transfer patterns indicate internal fund movement rather than organic token adoption. Furthermore, the crypto-focused anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and blockchain analytics platform, Global Ledger, had suggested in March that Garantex had moved its liquidity and customer funds to Grinex.

These findings further cement the likelihood of Grinex having absorbed some of Garantex’s clientele, although Grinex denies any direct links to the sanctioned crypto exchange.

Elliptic‘s co-founder, Tom Robinson, said, “Garantex users with outstanding balances at the time it was shut down could have these balances credited to new accounts set up on Grinex.”

BREAKING: A new Russian stablecoin, A7A5, has quietly moved $9.3bn through a Kyrgyz crypto exchange in just four months, a Financial Times investigation reveals. The token is linked to a sanctioned Russian defence bank and fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Șor, and is believed to…

— GeoInsider (@InsiderGeo) June 25, 2025

According to on-chain data from Etherscan and Tronscan, the A7A5, since its launch a few months ago, has managed to gather around 24000 users. Promsvyazbank, a Moscow-based bank under sanctions for its role in financing the Russian military, backs the A7A5 stablecoin 1:1 with Ruble reserves.

The Ruble-backed stablecoin’s circulating supply surpassed $140 million within a week of its launch, indicating a strong demand for the stablecoin from crypto users in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

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A7A5 Stablecoin Linked To Ilan Shor – Sanctioned Moldovan Businessman

Analysts, however, remain sceptical of the Ruble-backed stablecoin’s broader adoption because of the token’s clustered activity and unclear fund origins.

Additionally, the Centre for Information Resilience had unveiled linkages of the A7A5 stablecoin to Ilan Shor, a sanctioned Moldovan businessman, convicted of fraud. He was promoting the stablecoin at Russia’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum earlier this month.

A7A5, however, has claimed to sever ties with Shor in May.

Grinex has highlighted its aim to bring in more USDT alternatives rather than create vehicles to circumvent sanctions.

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Their spokesperson was quoted by another publication stating, “We strongly condemn any form of illegal activity, including sanctions evasion, money laundering, etc. All suspicious transactions are automatically blocked.”

On 7 March 2025, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the disruption of Grarantex in coordination with authorities in Germany and Finland. In their joint operation, authorities seized Garantex’s domains in Germany and Finland.

Prosecutors pressed criminal charges against Garantex’s administrators, Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda, who oversaw the laundering operations, and authorities froze over $26 million of illegal funds.

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